With the booming success of Spider-Man (1994) and X-Men (1992) on FOX, UPN wanted a piece of Marvel's animation success, and so a new series was commissioned. Given the popularity of the character, and most of Marvel's heavy hitters were either already on FOX, or had been done before, at this point in time, it simply had to be The Incredible Hulk. Marvel entrusted The Incredible Hulk to Supervising Producer Tom Tataranowicz, after he helped overhaul the syndicated Fantastic Four (1994) and Iron Man (1994) to more critical approval in their second seasons, and gave the Hulk a backdoor pilot attempt in both shows.

The UPN executive assigned to the show, really had no feeling for what the Hulk was about, nor what was most important to an action-adventure show in general, nor to Marvel fans in particular. There were a lot of creative differences, but what was discussed in most of those network meetings was her obsession with fashion, she kept insisting that everyone look like they just stepped out of a shop on Rodeo Drive, hardly a look that would fit any of the main characters. The episodes delivered to network tended to reflect the creative choices of the production company over those of network. Cut to season two. The axe falls. The edict came down from network that the show would be pulled from New World unless there were a change of creative personnel who would toe the line. So the second season got a new Producer, Director, and crew.

Character designs were done in-house at Marvel. The Hulk, Betty Ross, Major Glenn Talbot, and Doc Samson were modelled after their 70's comic designs, The Leader and Grey Hulk (original design) were modelled after their 80's designs, and the Abomination was modelled after his 90's design.

She-Hulk's cameo appearance, as a member of the Avengers, in Fantastic Four (1994), had to have taken place after her journey to New York City in this series, because she arrives in New York City and meets The Thing for the first time, in this series.

Story Editor Greg Johnson was especially excited about bringing in a relatively obscure group of characters from the comics. The Outcasts were there during the original gamma explosion, the animals and bugs that were also affected and have grown into their unique mutant forms. They have some element of intelligence, but they don't talk.